1. Technical Field
This application relates to a surgical stapling apparatus. More particularly, this application relates to a surgical stapling apparatus that includes structure for clamping tissue.
2. Related Art
Surgical stapling or fastener-applying devices for joining tissue are well known. Typically, such devices include an opposing jaw structure for grasping and clamping selected tissue, wherein one of the jaws of the opposing jaw structure includes a cartridge housing a plurality of staples or fasteners and the other jaw includes an anvil for formation of the fasteners.
Certain surgical stapling devices, for example, include two elongate jaw members for forming staples in generally linear rows. A cartridge containing staples arranged in two or more linear rows forms a tissue engaging surface of one of the jaw members, and an anvil having correspondingly arranged staple forming pockets forms an opposing tissue engaging surface of the other jaw member. The jaw members may be approximated to clamp the targeted tissue between the two tissue engaging surfaces. Thereafter the staples may be ejected from the cartridge toward the staple forming pockets to form rows of staples in the targeted tissue.
While employing a surgical stapler or similar device, a surgeon may experience difficulty while clamping tissue that is relatively thick; unduly strenuous effort may be required. To mitigate this difficulty, a surgeon will often pre-compress relatively thick tissue with a clamp prior to introducing the stapler, or apply clamps to adjacent tissue in conjunction with the stapler. These procedures require extra steps and devices and can be time consuming and expensive especially during endoscopic procedures.